DAHLIA SHOW.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 69, 18 February 1939, Page 16

DAHLIA SHOW.

COLOUR AND VARIETY. A flower show is always fascinating. There is something of the pleasure of walking in a garden in drifting slowly round a large hall massed with blooms. At a flower show, however, theer are no gaps as in a garden where something has always just finished fjowering and something else not quite begun. But hero everything blooms at once in riotous profusion. Not only is this the case at the National Dahlia Show, which concludes to-day, but each flower seems to' be a very titan of its kind.

The first thing one visitor asks another is: “Have you seen the begonias?” and truly they are a most magnificent sight. One cannot quite believe that such a wealth of beauty really exists. The flowers are enormous and, with their lovely shades and delicate whorls, look rather like roses grown to sunflower size. They are artistically displayed among ferns. The gladioli are also magnificent. On one specimen the flowers must be easily’ six inches across and all are set with perfect symmetry along the stem.

By way of contrast there are the tiny pompom dahlias which are just as symmetrical with their petals packed closely into a ball. The other dahlias run the whole gamut of colour and size. Giants are frequent among them, and every possible shade is represented, one appearing to be a true gold colour. The "Women’s Institute displays attract much attention. They seem to reveal every possible variety of garden produce—flowers in profusion, fruit and vegetables, strawberries, bunches of onions, plump green peas, parsnips each big enough for a meal, and sturdy cabbages show the garden craft of the country woman. The decorative classes are not large, but there are some pleasing items—a dinner table decorated with dusky red flowers set off by crystal; another in pastel shades of pink and blue. There are floating bowls with delicate sprays resting on the surface of the water, and presentation boxes to bring a thrill of pleasure to the lucky recipient. The chief impression of the whole show is of a glowing mass of oolour—red paling to pink and merging in flame, lemon, apricot and white. There are few blue flowers (no one yet having produced a blue dahlia, apparently) the accent being all on the rich shades of autumn.